The Crisis Is Real

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
(Proverbs 29:18)

Short quiz:

If you answered yes to even one out of three, your parish may be at a decision point. If you’re feeling the weight of stagnation and decline, you’re not alone. Just this mid-August there was another article stating 9 out of 10 cradle Catholics have left the Church! The symptoms are clear, but the path forward requires vision, courage, and the right tools to reclaim our evangelical and social mission.

The time to revitalize your parish is today. But how?

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
(John 10:10)

There Is a Way Forward

I’ve seen what’s possible when parishes embrace their true calling as outposts and keepers of the Great Commission. Imagine your parish:

• Filled with adults on fire for their faith, confidently sharing Jesus Christ with everyone they meet,
• Supporting families and friendships that strengthen faith across generations,
• Growing steadily with new Christians and returning Catholics who were invited to come home.
• Praying and worshiping with depth and enthusiasm that’s palpable to anyone who walks through your doors.
• Known throughout your community for genuine welcome and meaningful service to others.

This isn’t a wistful dream—it happens in parishes that embrace the practices in the Mission Ignite process. And it’s working right now:

“A person would hardly recognize our parish from where we were three years ago. So much more is happening! People are enthusiastic about their faith and parish.”

–Fr. John Evans, Church of the Crucifixion, La Crescent MN

The Mark 5:19 Project offers Mission Ignite consulting regularly, with the next cohort of parishes starting in January 2026. But it is clear many more would benefit from a better set of tools to calibrate for mission across all ministries. A toolkit for those in our consulting cohort and for those who want or need to try it on their own and keep the parish ministries “tuned up.”

Do what do we mean by “tools”?

Your Complete Toolkit for Transformation

We are introducing a unique resource for all Catholic parishes. This toolkit is designed to guide your community in discerning and implementing God’s vision for evangelization. Drawing inspiration from both Msgr. Shea’s “From Christendom to Apostolic Mission,” Susan Windley-Daoust’s “The Four Ways Forward: Becoming an Apostolic Parish in a Post Christian World,” and many other battle-tested resources, this resource offers a theologically rich and culturally relevant approach to parish renewal that sticks, grows, and works.

What’s in the Toolkit?

At the heart of this toolkit is a desire to foster a vibrant, full-spectrum mission across all ministries and apostolates. It provides a variety of tools that can be used collectively or individually, empowering your parish to discern its unique path forward. These tools are crafted to support pastors and their teams in prayerful discernment, data capture, and decision-making.

Core Tools, which can be used as a step by step process:

• Discerning the Lord’s Vision for your Parish: Embark on a journey to uncover God’s unique call for your community.
• Discovering your Parish’s Mission Field: Identify the geographic and spiritual mission fields of your parish.
• Assessing your Parish’s Discipleship Level: Gain insights into the current state of discipleship within your community.
• Exploring the Four Evangelization Models for Parish Ministry: Discover models that guide your evangelization efforts.
• Creating a Discipleship Path: Develop a clear and nurturing path for discipleship growth.
• Pruning Your Ministry Tree for Fruit by Alignment: Align all ministries with the parish’s mission for fruitful outcomes.

Additional Tools to fill in lacks, build on strengths, and address specific particularities:

• Fostering a Prayer-Driven Staff and Councils: Cultivate a culture of prayer among parish leadership.
• Brainstorming for Evangelization: Spark creativity and innovation in your evangelization strategies.
• 101 Ways to Evangelize: Explore practical and diverse evangelization methods.
• Assessing your Parish’s Social Mission in the Light of Catholic Social Teaching: Evaluate your parish’s social mission through the lens of the Compendium for the Social Doctrine of the Church.
• Holy Families, Strong Families: Supporting parenting as the core of your internal discipleship.
• Making the Parish a “School of Prayer”: Transform your parish into a community deeply rooted in prayer.
• Recentering OCIA as the Reason for the Parish: Focus on the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults as a central parish mission.
• Creating a Parish Culture of Radical Hospitality: Build an inviting and welcoming parish environment.
• Creating an Invitation Culture: Develop a community that actively invites others to join in faith.
• Evangelizing Those Living with Disabilities: Inclusion, Participation, and Invitation: Ensure inclusivity and active participation for all.
• Making a Clear Communications Plan in a Distracted World: Develop effective communication strategies to reach your community.
• Mission Language Immersion 101: Enhance understanding and communication of the parish mission.
• Becoming an Other-Focused Parish through Service: Encourage service-oriented activities that reflect Christ’s love.
• Strengthening your Giving through Tithing: Foster a culture of generosity and stewardship.
• Creating a Witness-Forward, Story-Sharing Parish: Foster a culture of sharing personal faith stories that inspire and connect.
• Creating a Community of Christ-Centered Friends: Build a supportive and faith-filled community.
• The Ministry of the Catholic School: Integrate the mission of Catholic education into parish life.
• Working through Joined Parishes: Navigate the dynamics of shared parish communities.
• Evaluating Individual Ministries for Mission Template: Assess and refine ministries to align with the parish mission.

This toolkit is an invaluable companion for any parish eager to transition from a Christendom mindset to an apostolic, mission-forward mindset, as envisioned by both Msgr. Shea and Susan Windley-Daoust. It provides the practical tools needed to discern and implement a vision that is both theologically sound and culturally relevant, offering hope and encouragement for a vibrant parish future.

This isn’t theory. These are battle-tested approaches that have revitalized real parishes. We don’t offer one-size-fits-all solutions—we provide the framework for your parish to discover its God-given renewal path.

The key is embracing our call to discipleship, to follow Christ boldly in today’s stormy world. We must pray. We must listen to the Holy Spirit. We must be unafraid. We must roll up our sleeves and work…and we must believe our best days lie ahead. God has already given us everything we need to thrive. Do you believe that?

Now Is the Time to Act

You can help parishes make this crucial turn toward evangelization by:

• Making a donation to support The Mission Ignite Toolkit.
• Getting on the pre-order interest list using the form below; we’ll email you when The Mission Ignite Toolkit is available for pre-order later this Fall.

Your support isn’t just about funding a resource—it’s about igniting renewal in Catholic parishes across America. It’s about ensuring the Gospel continues to transform lives for generations to come.

“The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be “the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters.”
(Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 27)

We are staking our lives on this truth. Will you answer the call?